Warm and Buttery on the Inside

<Carrie> Charleston has everything.

My family, my friends, we all grew up here.

This is not like work when I get to work with my girls.

Krysten, Chop.

Chop.

[intelligible] Dramatic!

<John> It looks normal.

Chaos with good food.

<Carrie> My dad is incredibly important in my life.

<Donald> My shrimp, my grits, my beer.

I'm here if you ever need me, <Carrie> I always need you.

[Donald chuckles] ♪ [upbeat music starts] ♪ <Carrie> I took my mom's best recipe and started selling handmade Southern biscuits.

Now I'm balancing a family, a business and biscuits every day.

Thank you so much.

I'm Carrie Morey.

And this is how I roll.

<Carrie> So in this episode, we're meeting Mom, Dad and my friends.

That ought to be fun.

[laughs] Oh boy.

♪ [bluegrass music] ♪ My family, my friends.

We all grew up here in Charleston.

♪ We were surrounded by the history, the water and the food.

It was a very simple but beautiful life.

I hope that the way I cook and the way I entertain really reflects all of the way I was raised.

Everything is surrounded in our household by food.

It is the focal point of entertaining and showing love, really.

♪ [music ends] ♪ Charleston has definitely become one of the world's greatest tourist destinations in the last 20 years.

It has everything.

♪ [lively music] ♪ The Charleston food scene has exploded.

The city is full of distinctive restaurants that honor the food roots of the Lowcountry and really infuse great taste from everywhere else.

♪ [lively music continues] ♪ ♪ [music ends] ♪ The Charleston Wine and Food Festival is the biggest culinary event of the year.

Of course, I love it for the food, but I really love how representative it is of Charleston.

Coming out to a place that is the epitome of the Lowcountry and happening upon the most perfect weather that we could wish for.

And being in a Lowcountry environment, just makes you want to have more of it.

So, I think people love coming out here and spending their afternoon drinking and eating some of the best food in the country.

♪ [lively bluegrass] ♪ <Carrie> One of my favorite parts about the festival is the chance to collaborate.

And this year, I get to partner with Alex Munoz of Arlo Grey Restaurant in Austin, Texas.

<Alejandro> Charleston's such a great place for food.

<Carrie> We took pimento cheese and deconstructed it and made it into one of my favorites, Frito pie.

♪ <Alejandro> So I brought with me a pastrami-spiced lamb shoulder.

Just heavy on the black pepper, definitely coriander.

There's black lime in there as well.

Carrie came with the pimento cheese, the ace of the whole Frito pie.

<Carrie> I'll let you do your condiment shug, spicy cilantro jalapeno sauce.

Just really good comfort food.

Simple but delicious.

<Alejandro> When you put it all together, when you get like the smokiness from the lamb, the nice like textures from the beans, crunch from the chips, the cheese, the mesquite smoked creme fraiche, and everything together tastes a lot better than each individual thing, separated.

♪ [upbeat music] ♪ <Carrie> The Charleston Wine and Food Festival is 5 full days.

They have over 100 events.

Our next event gives me the opportunity to take Butter , the food truck, on a little local road trip.

♪ [upbeat music] ♪ We're doing a creamsicle biscuit paired with Chef Cheryl Day of the Back in the Day bakery in Savannah.

I'm pretty excited about that childhood nostalgia.

<Cheryl> Carrie came up with the idea of doing a great one of her delicious biscuits with orange zest.

She said, "“Cheryl, you bring the bling "and do the frosting and we'll just decorate them "and have fun.

"” <Carrie> Walk in the park.

<Cheryl> We're spreading the joy and happiness.

<Customer> Thank you so much.

<Cheryl> There you go.

<Customer> I just got here and I came straight to the biscuits.

<Carrie> They're sweet biscuits.

Does that change your mind?

<Customer> No.

<Carrie> Okay.

<Customer> I'm an adult.

I can eat dessert first.

<Carrie> Okay.

<Cheryl> We're popular.

[laughing] <Carrie> We're popular.

♪ [music ends] ♪ ♪ [soft music with natural sound] ♪ <Callie> I fell in love with Charleston as everybody does.

[crickets chirping] This is my home for a very long time.

I grew up in this house.

<Carrie> I can't imagine a better way to live to grow up this way to catch your supper.

To spend the days with salt water in your hair.

I have a lot of good memories in this creek.

<Sarah> My favorite thing to do when I go to grandma's house is I go crabbing with my family, sometimes my friends.

<Carrie> No, there's nothing on here.

Just the tide.

<Sarah> Two!

<Both> Whoa.

Yes!

<Sarah> Yes, mom!

<Carrie> We got a hole in the net.

[water splashes] <Carrie> There you go.

God, he was big.

[crickets chirping] Alright, you get that pathetic thing they're calling a net.

My dad and my mom, they're divorced.

They've been divorced since I was two.

<Callie> I got married in my sophomore year of college to Carrie's father.

It was a short-lived marriage, like five years.

It was a college marriage.

It was crazy.

<Carrie> My dad is incredibly important in my life, mainly because he raised me from a very young age.

So, that's a little different.

<Donald> No wonder you're spoiled.

<Carrie> Alright.

I'm not spoiled.

I had a lot of freedom.

I was really a good child.

<Donald> You were a great child.

I told you that today you were as good as gold.

I just can't figure out what happened.

[laughs] [crickets chirping] <Carrie> We're going to try to catch some shrimp.

And if that is successful, we will have shrimp and grits which is what I think of when I think of my childhood with dad growing up.

He, you know, he's a simple cook, but he always made it work for us.

<Donald> You remember how to do this?

<Carrie> I do, I do.

I haven't done it with you in a long time.

<Donald> You probably haven't been doing it right - <Carrie> I'm sure you'll be able to tell me all the things I'm doing wrong.

<Krysten> Donald, he is Carrie's hero.

<Donald> Being one of five boys.

I didn't have a whole lot of experience with raising a young, a girl.

We became very close at a very early age and spent a hell of a lot of time together.

You know, I had a little Volkswagen convertible back in those days when she was just a little girl, and we would ride around town and have the top down and she'd have her little cap on and we would sing and just have a good time.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

<Carrie> What?

<Donald> You're throwing it too far out there.

>> I haven't started and you're already telling me <Donald> You want to do right or you want to do it wrong?

<Carrie> All right.

<Donald> There you go.

Oh, Lord!

You're going to load them up.

Let it go down.

Let it go down to the ground.

<Carrie> All right.

Did I pass your test?

<Donald> You done good.

[chuckles] <Carrie> Oh!

That's not bad, not bad at all.

<Donald> Let's have some for dinner.

♪ [upbeat music] ♪ <Mason> Uggh!

Look at that.

We're terrible.

<Carrie> These are my girls.

These are my, you know your best friends.

<Krysten> Amy and I have known each other.

We were best friends in high school.

Carrie and I have known each other since eighth grade.

<Krysten> We lived together in college and after college, <Mason> To have friends, this deep friendship for this long, you don't see all the time and so I am really grateful for that.

<Carrie> They have been instrumental in helping me start Callie's Biscuits.

In the beginning, I would, you know, say can you come help me at this food show or this festival?

<Mason> After we first sort of said, that sounds crazy who's going to buy you know, these biscuits?

Kind of all jumped in and helped.

<Amy> I just wanted to be around her.

We have fun together.

<Carrie> Oh, that's a good one.

Oh!

<Amy> I am definitely not the fun one.

[laughs] They are all really fun.

<Carrie> Do you have - give me your cup.

<Amy> I'm the responsible one.

That's when I started working four hours at a time here and there.

I wasn't thinking that this frozen biscuit company is going to be where it is today.

That never crossed my mind.

<Amy> Whew, looking good ladies.

Bye.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Bye, Kayla.

<Kayla> Bye.

♪ [calming music] ♪ [intelligible] <Carrie> To be able to cook with my best girlfriends and have a couple of margaritas and relax is the perfect getaway.

<Amy> She is making some crazy recipe.

It's called salmon with the nuns.

<Carrie> When I was in Mexico, I watched a cooking show and the nuns were making this salmon ceviche salad.

So, this is a version of that.

[food sizzling] So this is the naan that I can't stop making and it's certainly not... Mexican, but naan is good with anything.

<Amy> Yep.

So two cups of flour.

<Carrie> Two cups of flour.

And then yogurt.

And that's it.

<Amy> You put yogurt in?

<Carrie> Yeah, and then, Krysten you can add some cilantro and garlic literally, two things.

You don't have to put anything else I put a healthy amount of salt, cilantro, red onions and garlic.

But if you had white onions or green onions, it doesn't matter.

You form it into a dough ball.

See it kind of gets very similar to biscuit dough.

And then you cut it into eight equal pieces.

You can get them super thin and I take it over and fry them in the pan.

I got to improvise.

<Krysten> As a good friend.

I hear a lot of the challenges that she has too, and I'm thinking, ' Well, you're opening another store.'

' you're complicating your life more.

'Why are you doing this?'

And part of it is, she'll admit, she's like it's a little bit of an addiction.

"I love it.

I have to keep going."

<Krysten> Daughters <Carrie> This is like perfectly cooked.

<Carrie> Look this is so easy.

You can make this on a weeknight.

Oh it is perfectly cooked.

<Krysten> Perfect.

<Mason> Carrie and her mom are very similar in that they both have the most incredible style.

<Krysten> Just like that, a weekday meal.

Super easy.

<Carrie> It was easy.

<Krysten> Uh huh.

<Carrie> That is easy!

<Krysten> Carrie definitely has inherited that love for cooking.

You can tell she's in her element when she's in the kitchen and that is Callie.

I just had it - <Callie> Oh my gosh!

[blender whirring] Piece de resistance.

This is a quite a showstopper fish.

The fish we're having is a snapper, a large snapper.

They didn't take the middle bone out.

He couldn't get this out.

<Carrie> He said he could not.

I really pushed him on it.

<Callie> We will eat like we were in Mexico tonight.

<John> My job when Carrie and Callie are cooking together, is to do everything I can to relax my wife.

Today I'd say Carrie's very relaxed.

Might also say, so is Callie.

<Sarah> Gammie's not relaxed.

<Callie> Sarah just told me I was highly stressed.

<John> Oh my gosh!

No, no, no.

That's nothing compared to... [Callie laughs] <Callie> I think that all us, or I do, in particular, especially people in the catering business.

I think I was very, very addicted to adrenaline.

<John> Self created adrenaline.

<Callie> Carrie, are you using tomatoes?

I'm just going to get them out of the way.

<Producer> Do you have any idea how hot that's going to get?

<John> Ideally, we get it to, I don't know, 600 degrees.

You can get it to well over 700.

<Carrie> I would say 90% of the time, I'm going to do what she asked me to do in her kitchen.

But we just - before I just had a little scuffle about poblanos and how she wanted me to put them in water.

I want to do it the way I know how to do it because then I don't have to think about it.

That phrase, "There's too many cooks in the kitchen" was created from some poor daughter who cooked in the kitchen with her mom.

<John> Oh stop.

<Carrie> I'm kidding.

<Callie> Oh, you have mushed them almost.

<Carrie> I did, I mushed them.

<John> It's two people trying to get to the same place, doing it differently.

And somehow it ends up being as they want it to be.

<Carrie> Will you come taste this?

<Callie> Perfect.

<Carrie> You don't think it needs more salt?

<Callie> One side of the filet has a parsley, garlic, olive oil, bright green sauce on one side, one whole fillet.

And the other side has a spicy, roasty, toasty Mexican chili spread.

It looks gorgeous when raw.

And then it goes in that wood fired oven for hardly anytime like a pizza almost.

Oh yum.

It looks fabulous.

<Pamela> I started working with Callie as, matter of fact, babysitting for Carrie is when I started in high school.

She started doing catering and then I started helping out.

<Callie> My children consider Pamela and introduce her as their other mother.

And her children are like my other children.

<Pamela> Working with Callie, it's just not working with a person and say she's your boss.

She's really family.

<Carrie> Oh!

[fire roars] <Callie> Don't do that.

<Carrie> Dramatic!

<Callie> Fire, fire, fire.

I think it looks good.

<Carrie> It's fine.

It's fine.

<Callie> I'm not crazy about having stainless steel.

<Carrie> How beautiful is that?

<Producer> Is that what's supposed to happen?

<Carrie> Yeah!

<Callie> the fire?

<Carrie> Say yes.

<Callie> Not really.

But it's not going to hurt it <John> It looks normal.

Chaos with good food.

♪ [cheerful music] ♪ <Carrie> Okay, right here, Isaiah.

<Callie> Tonight?

It's kind of a Mexican feast.

[laughter] <Carrie> Oh, oh!

Got to get the pretty side.

<Callie> Oh!

He likes my refried beans.

♪ >> Looks good.

<Pamela> It's just family.

We may have differences, but we're always there for one another.

<Carrie> This is a good night.

Thank you so much.

<Callie> I love you.

Mwah >> Thank you.

<Callie> I love you for taking on my...banner of cooking and making it your own.

♪ <Carrie> Cheers.

<Callie> Cheers to everybody here the table who are my favorite people on the planet.

Yes.

♪ [cheerful music ends] ♪ <Carrie> In the morning, we're going to get up early and do a little breakfast.

♪ [dramatic fanfare music] ♪ I've got my OG biscuit girls with me to help serve the biscuits.

<Amy> She just kicked me out of there.

She wants you on the line.

Mason and I were taken orders.

<Carrie> Krysten.

Chop, chop.

I need you.

So, just put their name on it and it's either bacon, egg and cheese, sausage, egg and pimento, biscuits and gravy, BLT or a plain special with blackberry jam.

Are you going to be able to remember that?

<Amy> I will excel at this.

<Carrie> Krysten and I are always the cookers.

We're always on the line or at the food shows.

We're always the one assembling the biscuits.

♪ [lively music] ♪ Then we have Mason who's a good talker.

<Mason> I just got 2 big orders.

<Carrie> And Amy who provides lots of entertainment out in the front.

<Amy> I am really going start making up stuff.

<Carrie> There you go.

<Carrie> Perfect.

<Amy> Just an egg and cheese biscuit?

You got it.

♪ [lively music] ♪ <Scott> It's incredible to see a friendship last as long as it has lasted.

And to see them still as close as they are and that they can still work together, pretty efficiently.

We've got a decent crowd out here and they're not fighting.

So, it's pretty cool.

after this many years since college that they can still do it.

♪ [lively music] ♪ <Group> Good.

Good job.

<Carrie> This is not like work when I get to work with my girls.

<Amy> So proud of y'all.

<Carrie> Love y'all.

♪ [music ends] ♪ <Carrie> I have memories of him coming home late after I was in bed and he would wake me up and we would make waffles but it was waffles like out of the box, you know, like a pancake mix and he would put my can of cream corn in them.

So, that is a very fond memory that I have with him.

<Caroline> I think that those were the kind of things that formulated her idea that food is love.

And this is this is a great thing.

<Carrie> My dad has always been an inspiration to me, mainly because he was able to do it all.

He was a full time dad to me and ran his own business.

<Donald> She used to work for me.

I was an investment advisor for 40 years, and she worked in my office for about three and a half years and she walked in one day said, "Dad, "I don't like this business."

I said, '‘Well, you need to get out.

But what are you going to do?'

She said, " I'm going to go make and sell biscuits."

I said, '‘ Well, you have to sell a lot of biscuits to make any dough'.

♪ [music ends] ♪ <Amy> Her dad fussing at her means more than anything.

Her mom fusses at her all the time.

She doesn't care.

If her dad fusses at her, she knows she needs to straighten up.

And she's 47 years old.

<Carrie> Well, you didn't de-vein them, <Donald> We're not going to de-vein them.

We don't de-vein shrimp in this house.

>> Dad.

<Donald> No, we don't do that.

<Carrie> Alright.

<Donald> It won't hurt you to eat shrimp like everybody else in the world eats shrimp.

<Carrie> Okay.

<Donald> How about a little beer in there, huh?

<Carrie> That would be actually pretty good.

Have you ever boiled them in just beer?

<Donald> No, but I do add beer.

<Carrie> It's one of two meals that I remember vividly with you.

<Donald> What was that other meal?

<Carrie> Cream corn waffles.

<Donald> Waffle, waffle waffle?

[laughing] ♪ [slow bluegrass music] ♪ <Carrie> Oh, look at how beautiful they are now.

<Donald> Yeah.

<Carrie> All right.

You ready?

<Donald> Grits.

<Carrie> Grits.

<Donald> Shrimp and grits.

(intelligible) <Carrie> Needs some butter.

Everything needs butter.

<Donald> That's a lot of butter.

<Carrie> That's not even all that we're going to use.

<Donald> Oh,yeah, that's all you need right there.

That's what you got to understand is cooking perfectly.

And the grits will absorb that water and it'll be ready in 10 or 15 minutes.

<Carrie> No, no dad.

<Donald> Carrie, who's cooking this?

<Carrie> It looks like I am.

<Sarah> No.

Pop Pop.

is.

<Donald> My grits, not your grits.

My grits.

My shrimp.

My grits.

My beer.

<Carrie> Okay.

<Sarah> I think grits should be cooked for 20 minutes.

So, it's even between 45 and 15.

<Carrie> It's on that direct heat, I'm going to- <Donald> You worried about the pot or worried about the grits?

<Carrie> I'm worried about the grits because - <Donald> Look out!

You're going to spill the damn grits.

<John> Do I think the grits will be good?

<Donald> There she goes, messing up with the salt.

Heart attack haven.

<Carrie> Stop it.

<John> It depends on who cooks them.

I'll leave it at that.

♪ [jazz music] ♪ <Caroline> I'm going to make Carrie's grandmother's biscuits.

Donald's mother's biscuits.

Not the biscuits that Carrie sells.

<Carrie> Star of the show!

My favorite - <Caroline> Nana's biscuits <Carrie> Nana's biscuits.

Nana is my grandmother on dad's side.

Rebecca.

<Carolyn> - lovely person <Carrie> Lovely.

She made the best biscuits but they're angel biscuits.

So they're all-purpose flour with leavening and yeast.

And so kind of like a cross between a yeast roll and a biscuit.

And they are delicious.

<Donald> My mother she taught you a few things about cooking.

<Carrie> She taught me a lot.

Oh my gosh!

She taught me about constantly to think about food all the time.

[laughs] Cause she was constantly feeding so many people so it was waking up for breakfast.

Talk about what you're going to make for lunch.

Have what you're going to have for supper.

That was her job.

That was her job.

<Donald> Lovely Lady.

<Carrie> Oh, yeah.

<Caroline> I knew Carrie would make it.

I knew Carrie was going to get where she wanted to go.

There was no question in my mind.

<Group> Cheers, everyone.

Cheers.

♪ [peaceful music starts in background] ♪ <Donald> I thought your grits were really good.

<Carrie> Thanks.

I did too.

We made the grits together.

<Donald> I'd say we made it together.

But you know, we did it your way.

<John> Right.

When you say collaborative, you mean that you tell somebody else how to do it.

They tell you that's not how I want to do it.

<Donald> Then they... <John> But then, it ends up how you want to do it <Carrie> Well I listened.

I listened to his ideas.

And I decided that I thought we should do it this way.

<Donald> Carrie always knew that she was going to become - someone to reckon with.

You just keep trucking along and doing what you do and just know that I'm here if you ever need me.

<Carrie> I always need you.

[Donald laughs] <Carrie> Thanks.

<Donald> I love you.

I'm proud of you.

<Carrie> I love you.

<Donald giggles> ♪ [peaceful music ends] ♪ ♪ ♪